News of the Cinema

Press, Volume LXXI, Issue 21417, 8 March 1935, Page 5

News of the Cinema

NEW PROGRAMMES jfeny Interesting Films for City Theatres %n interesting: and attractive group of new films, together ujj some established favourites, form the programmes which will be shown at the city theatres during the coming week. The pool! character of "Man of Aran," with its wild and splendid setting*. « ts dramatic story and natural acting, makes it a picture tlut most people will be anxious to see. Cecil B. de Mille has wojdc for the lavishness of his productions, and his "Cleowtra/' based on an old and famous story from the history of rr,pt and Koine, provides a notable example of his art as a producer. "Madame du Barry" has already achieved a splendid reputation as a stage play, and the film version, with Dolores del gjo in the leading role, is said to have points of superiority to the «Say. A comedy of the sea, with John Gilbert and Victor* McLaglen a, the main parts, will be shown at the Majestic Theatre, and at the Liberty Theatre an outstanding Paramount production, "Four Frifbteued people." Pictures which will continue for a further fgasen are "London Speaks," "Are You a Mason?", and "The Gay Divorcee." Notable players who will be seen include Claudette Colbert. Charles Boyer, Fred Astaire, Sydney Howard, Sonnie Hale. Herbert Marshall, W. C. Fields, Bing Crosby, and Miriam HopkinsREGENT— "C leopalra." starring Claudette Colbert, Warren William, Henry Wilcoxon, and C. Aubrey Smith. Drama and lavish spectacle, based on the story of Antony and Cleopatra. Prodnced by Cecil B. de Mille. Paramount. Tomorrow. TJVOLI—"Man of Aran," a drama of life on the Aran Islands, off the coast of western Ireland. Produced by Robert Flaherty. "The Battle," starring Charles Boyer, Merle Oberon, and John Loder. Naval drama. Fox Films. Tomorrow. fLAZA— ".Madame du Barry," starring Dolores del Rio, Verree Teasdale, and Victor .Tory. Drama. Warner Brothers. To-morrow. MAYFAIR —"The (lay Divorcee," starring Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers. Alice Brady, and Edward Everett Horton. Musical extravaganza. RKO-Radio. Second week. CIVIC—"Ar«* You a Mason?" starring Sonnie Hale, Robertson Hare, and Lewis Shaw. Comedy. Twickenham Studios. Third week. MAJESTIC —"The Captain Hates the Sea," starring John Gilbert, Victor MrLaglrn. Wynne Gibson, Alison Skipworth, and Helen Vinson. Comedy of the sea. Columbia. Tomorrow. CRYSTAL PALACE—"London Speaks." Dramatic scenic film. Second week. LIBEETY—"The Old-Fashioned Way," starring W. C. Fields, Baby le Roy, Joe .Morrison, and Judith Allen. Comedy. Paramount. "Four Frightened People," starring Claudette Colbert, Herbert Marshall, Mary Boland. and William Gargan. Powerful drama. Paramount. To-morrow. GEAKD—"She Loves Me Not," starring Bing Crosby and Miriam Hopkins. Musical romance. Paramount. To-morrow.

THE !ART OF MR NOEL COWARD STRONG DRAMATIC INSTINCT AMERICAN WRITER'S ASSESSMENT After the critical fanfares to which he has grown accustomed Mr Coward might well feel a little pettish about the response to "Point Valaine." Not the public response: the public likes his drama well enough to lighten the heart of the testiest box-office man in the business. But with two or three exceptions the reviews have been either reluctant or censorious, and "Point Valaine" has been generally set aside as one of the minor Coward items. The theme smacks of the tropical flesh-pots, which many other dramatists have set stewing over the theatre's hot-plate; the story is meagrely told through two preliminary acts, and the Lunts are discovered in some of the ugliest capers of thenfashionable career. For 'Point Valaine" is open to criticism from several points of view, among them being a temperamental dislike of grossness and bestiality on the stage. But I am one of those who found Mi Coward's drama an engrossing excursion into the pungent stalemate of Me in the tropics, states a writer in the "New York Times." After reading the text, I am also interested in the relation it bears to Mr Coward's brilliant career in the English and American playhouses. For, whatever its shortcomings may be, it is a serious and sincere play. The heartbreaking pageantry of "Cavalcade" belongs in that category, although Mr Coward denies having had any noble motive when lie sat down to write his single epic for the stage. "The original motive for •Cavalcade,' " he says in the brisk preface to "Play Parade," "was a longcherished ambition to write a big piny on a big scale and produce it at the London Coliseum"—a very human ambition, too. His Fame Explained For Mr Coward's fame comes ch icily from little comedies and theatre pieces that he has composed out. of an exfraordinarv instinct for the stage and carried through to production on his theatre nerves. Once Bernard Shaw described the drama as "sane hallucination." His insistance upon sanity seems superfluous. What Mr Coward evoked out of the theatre's magic boxes in "Bitter Sweet," "PrivateLives," and "Design for Living" were the evanescent, hallucinations of a brilliantly gifted master of stage ceremonies. His taste in phrases was perfect; his instincts for timing and inflection were exact. When F.velyn Laye, Gertrude Lawrence, the Lunts, and Mr Coward in person added to these many gifts the glow of their personalities and the distinction of their acting the artifice of theatre was nicely fulfilled. Having come into the theatre as an actor Mr Coward has an understanding of it in his blood. No one on the other side of the footlights can ever learn stage sorcery that well. Satire is the quickest medium of

Linda, who returns his affection, but with misgivings. For the horrible secret she has been keeping .from the world all these years is that Stefan is her lover. When all these forces, both tender and bestial, meet head-on in the last act the tragedy they create is painful and loathsome. Being fully aware of the nature of the many different emotions involved Mr Coward has caught them in terms of stage admiration and brittle dialogue. He has underscored the ugliness of the situation by the coarseness and carnality of his characterisation of Stefan, and Alfred Lunt plays that part with his familiar exuberance in the spittonimage of a monster. As Linda, Miss Fontanne acts with remarkable deliberation and clarity, and Louis Hayward is not only attractive but remarkably sentient as the aviator. If "Point Vafainc" is a thoroughly unpleasant play it is partly because Mr Coward's actors have the courage and capacity to draw all the unhappy passion out of the situation. I><'tlicatii>n He has dedicated his play to Somerset Maugham. Superficially that may .-•rem like a polite genutlection Inward tlie maslor of sin in the tropics. Bui Mr Coward has no need of humble gestures, for he has made "Point Valaine" a ?ry much his own by the completeness of his sympathy for those who suffer. There is no (rare of cynicism in his treatment of them; as an artist he is kind enough to pity them. When he comes to the conclusion he has a theatre? man's instinct for crisp finalities, but he has no capacity for giving his play perspective in the cyclorama of human living. What "Point Valaine" needs then is an exhilarating comment that might lift it high above its inherent sordidness. The novelist's polite little word of assurance to Linda is both inadequate and I evasive. "It has nothing to do with ! vou," he says to her gently. "Romem- ! ber that. II has nothing whatever In 'do with yon." It. has a great deal to 'do with her; it has lulled one man,